


Neighbourly

by rain_sleet_snow



Series: The Trials and Tribulations of Cpt. Thos. Ryan, 95th Light Division [1]
Category: Primeval
Genre: Alternate Universe - Regency, M/M, Prequel, Unspoken Feelings with a capital F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-22
Updated: 2016-04-22
Packaged: 2018-06-03 18:58:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6622441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rain_sleet_snow/pseuds/rain_sleet_snow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lyle came home safe from Waterloo; as a good neighbour, Sir James is glad to see him returned.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Neighbourly

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MysteriousAliWays](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MysteriousAliWays/gifts).



> Fandom stocking gift for mysteriousaliwz. :)

"You are a shocking loose screw," Sir James Lester said severely, watching Lieutenant Lyle sprawl all over one of the most comfortable chairs in his library, and make free with his burgundy. "I cannot think why I tolerate your presence."

 

"You like me well enough," Lyle said comfortably. "Confess it - you are pleased to have sight of me."

 

"I wonder that you should not have said 'news'," Lester remarked, mending his pen and staring past it at the mahogany of his desk.

 

"My mother is a confounded gossip," Lyle corrected, lazy smiling in the candle-light. Lester set his correspondence aside, and went to sit at a chair opposite Lyle's, filling the second glass that the butler had left, at Lester's orders. "I am sure you have known I am alive these many weeks."

 

"I made private enquiries on her behalf," Lester said, around the aching hole in his chest. "You cannot have understood what a panic the country was thrown into at the first reports, Jon. And it was a bloody battle."

 

The smile faded on Lyle's face, and he looked down into his glass. "It was, at that." He tossed back the burgundy and refilled his glass. "I have never known an engagement like it, James."

 

"It is _devoutly_ to be hoped that you will not know another such," Lester retorted.

           

The ready laughter sprang back to Lyle's hazel eyes. "But then, James, think - peace time is so dull; and there should be nothing for a man of my stamp to do."

 

The hole in Lester's chest had become a lump in his throat, and he thought of great lizard creatures and animals that bore no resemblance to even the most outlandish of his ward Abigail's naturalist studies - and the fearful mess they left behind them. "You would contrive to get yourself into some scrape. I know you well enough to say that."

 

"You know me well indeed," Lyle said idly, his face tilted back to the ceiling, and the serried rows of books that lined the walls.

 

Lester sipped at his burgundy and kept his counsel until a frown passed across Lyle's face; then he set down his glass and said quietly: "What is it, Jon?"

 

"I have set up a friend in my mother's house," Lyle disclosed slowly. "That is why I came here. He was injured, at the battle - badly - and he was not prospering in Bruxelles, so I removed him." There was a short, reflective pause. "Devil of a fellow, Tom. Saved my life an hundred times over, I promise you."

 

"Certainly we shall receive him," Lester said dryly. "If you think he wants entertainment. Though I fear my lively offspring will drive him into a decline."

 

Lyle laughed. "Oh, no! not Tom! I only hope your Miss Abigail does not swoon over him." His eyes shone with mischief. "Gallant officer returned from the wars, you know."

 

"Unless he is a reptile, I doubt it," Lester remarked acidly. "Katherine despairs of her. She cares more for - for books of beasts than beaux."

 

"No bad thing, for an heiress."

 

"True." Lester sighed, and put a hand over his eyes. "Say no more of it, Jon. We shall be the best neighbours possible to your friend. And I shall engage for it that Nicky will _not_ put a cricket ball through his drawing-room window, as he has already done to Lady Purslane and Mr Willitoft."

 

Lyle burst out laughing, which was what Lester had wanted in the first place.


End file.
